1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computing systems, and more particularly to a computing system for a data processing apparatus that is designed to be flexible when modifying a formula used for computation during data processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional data processing apparatus, computations using various formulas are made when carrying out data processing. The formulas used for the computations are not fixed, and normally, the formulas are successively modified depending on the nature of the data processing. For this reason, the data processing apparatus must be designed so that various formulas can be computed when carrying out the data processing and so that the data processing apparatus can adjust to perform flexibly in response to modifications of the formulas.
In the conventional data processing apparatus, formulas required for the data processing are inserted within a data processing program and the required formulas are computed depending on the execution of the data processing program. Similarly, when carrying out a computation such as obtaining a total of a group of variables listed in a table, a formula for obtaining the total is inserted in the data processing program and the computation is carried out by executing the data processing program.
However, according to the conventional data processing apparatus, it is necessary to modify the data processing program itself when modifying the formula. The modification of the data processing program is not a large burden on the programmer when only a slight modification is made to the formula. But when a large modification to the formula is required, there is a large burden on the programmer. Therefore, there is the problem that modification of the formula greatly deteriorates the program development efficiency.